A new Digimon Story game that is separate from Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth Hacker’s Memory is in development, producer Kazumasa Habu told 4Gamer.net in an interview published today.

Here is the full exchange that leads to the reveal:

4Gamer.net: It seems that Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth also received favorable reviews overseas.

Kazumasa Habu: While it received high praise in Japan, we received extremely high praise from fans overseas, so we took the path of worldwide expansion for the future.

However, nowadays PlayStation 4 is the main hardware overseas, and PS Vita has little to no retail space at stores. So for the physical version of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, we developed a port for PlayStation 4.

4Gamer.net: Overseas, Digimon World: Next Order was also a PlayStation 4 port based on a PS Vita game.

Kazumasa Habu: Right. It would have been made based on PlayStation 4 hardware, but we have to rebuild the game engine for PlayStation 4, as well as redo the graphics. In that case, it would take about three to four years to make a good game from scratch. At that point, it would have been quite a long gap from Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth.

We consider “not dampening the fans’ enthusiasm” extremely important in continuing the Digimon IP, and for that reason it is important to regularly offer content.

So, while working on a completely new Digimon Story project, I thought I could offer a new story that depicts another side of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth called Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth Hacker’s Memory as not to dampen the fans’ enthusiasm.

4Gamer.net: A completely new Digimon Story that is separate from Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth Hacker’s Memory is already in the works? That is a bit surprising.

Kazumasa Habu: Regarding Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth Hacker’s Memory, officially we refer to it a “new title in the Cyber Sleuth series” rather than “new title in the Digimon Story series,” and in reality there is reason for that. That includes my desire to reliably provide content for fans who enjoyed the previous titles.

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth Hacker’s Memory is due out for PlayStation 4 and PS Vita in Japan on December 14, and in the Americas and Europe on January 19, 2018.